Tazria: Fear of Impurity

The words we speak may soothe our spiritual and emotional wounds when spoken in kindness, but speech has the potential to “sicken” us, as individuals and as a society when spoken in malice.
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Headshot of Rabbi Jay LeVine

Tetzaveh: Meet the Darkness with a Persistent Light

We need each other’s lights. A friend, colleague, or ally — perhaps even those we consider adversaries — have the sacred potential to ignite in us the lamp of tamid consciousness and the willingness to widen our circles and give ourselves to the tasks of care, compassion, advocacy, and love.
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Harvest Prayer

Sukkot, the fall harvest holiday, blends our gratitude for a bountiful harvest, our awareness of the fragility and vulnerability of all life, and our ancient communal memory of leaving Egypt to travel in the desert under God’s protection. This prayer-poem connects those themes to the astounding human rights accomplishments of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers...
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Living by Our Values

Commentary on Parshat Acharei Mot (Leviticus 16:1 – 18:30) When my pluralistic Jewish school’s 11th- and 12th-grade students visited a nearby Roman Catholic school for our annual “Friends in Faith” program, they finished the icebreakers and the lively Quiz Bowl game, and then they walked towards the chapel for a mid-morning visit and explanation of...
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Take With You Words

I do a lot of driving and often listen to sixties music while in the car. Like many people, I do not always pay attention to the lyrics, but lately every time I hear “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire I find myself listening more carefully, lamenting the fact that humanity has not made as...
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Shemini: Strange Pitfalls and Big-Picture Solutions

Those of us of a certain age remember the heady days of the 1960s, when we hoped to create a new world of peace and love. Fast forward half a century to the last election. How did the love generation devolve into today’s isolation, rage, and powerlessness? What went wrong? This week’s parashah, with its...
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The Exodus from Egypt Was Only the Beginning

As Emma Lazarus taught us, “until we are all free, we are none of us free.” Even once the Israelites left that narrow place, Egypt, they were still pursued by Pharaoh and his army. They eventually came to stand at the shore of the sea, at the crossroads of history; that is where we stand today. 
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When Grief Turns to Rage

Jewish leaders need to be authoritative and steadfast in ensuring that September 11th and its commemorations do not provide annual pretense for rage against Muslims (and Sikhs and the countless others conflated with Muslims). Nor can we allow political opportunists to seize upon our unresolved grief and pain once again. 
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On Arendt: Creating a Zionism That Owns Its Mistakes

Hannah Arendt would find it very tricky to be a Zionist today. She was critical of David Ben Gurion’s policy of effectively ignoring the Palestinians’ sincere pursuit of national sovereignty. She advocated a Zionism that would be achieved through excellent relations with the Palestinian neighbors, rather than in spite of them. In her essay “To...
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Lift Up Your Lulav And Yourself

This past summer, my family moved out of our cramped New York apartment and into a beautiful new home in western Massachusetts. The people are wonderful, there are farmstands selling local fruits and veggies everywhere, and there are lots of hiking trails minutes from our front door. But if you’ve ever moved to a new...
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